"The 70th anniversary of the launch of the Royal Navy's last operational World War Two destroyer is being marked on Saturday in Kent.

HMS Cavalier was rotting in a dry dock on Tyneside until 1999 when she was bought by Chatham Historic Dockyard, transported to Chatham, and restored.

It has since been a memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers lost during the war and the 11,000 men who died.

A church service is being held and a parade through the dockyard.

Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, said: "It is one of only two ships still surviving form the Second World War, the other being HMS Belfast in London, and it is a symbol of the very large number of destroyers which were lost."